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Wednesday, 1 August 2012

Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Conspiracy

The Bourne
Conspiracy is a third-person action game that at first seems like a great idea,
but there are a number of flaws that make this game seem more like an
old-school arcade game than a covert, black-ops mission. And as a fan of the
movies, I was expecting to feel the full power of Bourne in my hands.
Unfortunately, I didn't.

The game
loosely follows the plot of The Bourne Identity, the first in the movie
franchise. Whilst you do get to relive some of the key moments in the film,
such as the car chase through Paris, or the battle with Castel, you won’t get
much of a story, so don’t expect a full-on movie game. Well that should be
obvious anyway, it has a different name. A lot of the game is based on
flashback sequences, from before the first movie, you get to play through
various scenarios, and a few things are explained, such as how he got to be
floating in the water with bullets in his back. Don’t look forward to a full
explanation though, as these things are only touched on, and never fully
explored.

The visuals
are quite strange. They aren’t necessarily bad graphics, but they aren’t great
either. The thing that makes them stick in your mind, is their style. The
cutscenes are shown through an odd sort of filter. Everything seems grainy and
darkened. During the introductory scene, I tried to adjust my television set
before I realised that it was just a unique styling. In a way, this is faithful
to the film and character, as Bourne struggles to remember his past, this is
made apparent by the low quality of the scenes. On the other hand, developer
High Moon Studios could’ve just decided to spend as little as possible in the
visuals department, but I’ll allow you to decide that for yourself. You take on
the role of Bourne throughout the game, but if not for people calling you by
name, I never would have guessed that the character on screen is Bourne. The
developers seemed to have put no effort whatsoever in casting Matt Damon in the
game. He doesn’t look or sound anything like him. It’s up to you to decide
whether this is a good or a bad thing, based on your opinion of Matt Damon in
the film.

The
gameplay comes down to two things. Shooting and hand – to – hand combat. The
shooting is your basic cover-and-shoot playing style, but it isn’t done very
well. You are given a range of weapons to choose from throughout the game. You
can hold one main weapon, such as a shotgun or assault rifle, and one side-arm,
which is usually your signature, silenced pistol. The cover doesn’t work too
well though, as it disintegrates after a few hits, forcing you to find cover
somewhere else. Also, the gunplay feels extremely unsatisfying. The enemies you
face give no response to being hit, and only react when they die. When you pump
bullets into a foe, it feels like you aren’t hitting your target, and the lack
of reaction makes you wonder if you’re doing any damage at all.

The
gameplay really comes through with the hand-to-hand though. This is much more
satisfying, allowing you to beat enemies down with a combination of light and
heavy hits. You can also hold each attack button for a powerful kick, which
takes a while to charge, but can bust through an enemy’s block. Unfortunately,
I never felt fully in control of Bourne’s lethal abilities. You are limited to
quick and heavy punches, rather than his full fighting capability that we see
in the movie. As you land hits, you charge up your adrenaline meter, which has
three tiers. When you charge the first tier, you can perform a takedown. An
explosive show of Bourne’s true capability, as he utilises the environment, or
perhaps just his own body, to take down an enemy in a dramatic (and usually
awesome) move. On the second tier, you can take down two enemies at once, and
with the third tier, three. However, as I said before, when it comes to basic
fighting, you only have basic moves, and can only truly feel like Bourne when
the adrenaline meter is charged. After a while though, even the fistfights
become a little repetitive. This is especially apparent during the boss fights.
These are basically just extended fistfights, against an opponent with more
health and skill, and who may attempt a takedown or two of his own, which can
be countered by a short Quick-time-event.

Ahh yes.
The QTEs...you will find yourself doing many, many...many of these throughout the course of the game, in order to do
everything from dodging an explosion, to jumping over obstacles, and as
previously mentioned, countering enemy attacks. Hell, even the second and third
tier takedowns require a QTE to pull off. These quickly become tedious and
annoying, especially when you’re in the middle of a fistfight, you’re mashing
buttons, and all of a sudden, the QTE to counter a move starts. If you’re not
quick enough to react, you’ll find yourself losing a lot of health, very
quickly. You can also use them to perform sprinting takedowns, where you don’t
even have to stop moving. The final use is for the shooting takedowns. As with
hand-to-hand, shooting enemies increases the adrenaline meter, and when you
have enough, you can perform a shooting takedown, which works a lot like
Splinter Cell’s mark and execute system. Whilst it’s much more satisfying than
the regular gunplay, it doesn’t come close to the awesome takedowns of the
hand-to-hand combat.

The Bourne
Conspiracy isn’t a bad game, but it’s not even close to being good. The 6-8
hour campaign will be over quickly, and with nothing more than “passports” to
go back for (that don’t provide any real reward), there is very little
incentive to go back and play again. The linear areas provide little for
exploration and the lack of multiplayer means there’s no lasting value, but
there are a few redeeming factors of this game, such as the awesome takedowns,
that might make it worth a rent, rather than a buy.